Pat Duggins

News Director

Pat Duggins is news director for Alabama Public Radio. If his name or voice is familiar, it could be his twenty five years covering the U.S. space program, including fourteen years on NPR. Pat’s NASA experience began with the explosion of Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, and includes 103 missions. Many NPR listeners recall Pat’s commentary during Weekend Edition Saturday on February 1, 2003 when Shuttle Columbia broke apart and burned up during re-entry. His expertise was utilized during three hours of live and unscripted coverage with NPR’s Scott Simon. Pat later wrote two books about NASA, Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program and Trailblazing Mars, both of which have been released as audio books. Pat has also lectured about the future of the space program at Harvard, and writes about international space efforts for "Modern Weekly" magazine in Shanghai, China.

Duggins experience goes beyond NASA. He led the APR news team through the tornadoes of 2011. Along with dawn to dusk rescue and recovery updates, the news crew also provided national and international coverage for the BBC in London, MSNBC, CBC in Canada, and Australia Broadcasting in Sydney and Melbourne. Duggins’ efforts, and that of the APR news team, were twice recognized with National Sigma Delta Chi awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. The Radio Television Digital News Association also honored Pat and the team with a national Edward R. Murrow Award for overall excellence. The Alabama Associated Press also recognized APR as the "Most Outstanding News Organization" in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. And, Duggins' news series on the long-term impact of the Gulf oil spill won a national PRNDI award for best series from the Public Radio News Directors' Association, and a regional Murrow. His documentary "Civil Rights Radio," on the 1963 "children's march" in Birmingham was honored with the international "Silver Radio Award" from the New York Festivals radio competition, and with a "Gabriel Award" from the Catholic Church.

Pat’s work isn’t limited to radio, with regular appearances on TV. He also conducts interview/profile segments for "Alabama, Inc." a new University of Alabama TV series on business on airs statewide on Alabama Public Television. Pat also co-hosted “Your Vote Counts,” a program featuring college-age voters who critiqued the final debate between Robert Bentley and Ron Sparks in the 2011 race for Alabama Governor.

Since his arrival at APR, Pat and the team have won more than sixty awards for excellence in journalism, including a second national Sigma Delta Chi award and the international Gabriel award. Duggins is also the recipient of a Suncoast Regional Emmy.

Ways to Connect

Can a member of the Alabama Public Service Commission make money off a solar power deal? That’s the question going back to a state ethics panel. PSC Commissioner Chip Beeker wants to lease land to a solar energy company that in turn would sell electricity back to a power company regulated by the PSC. Beeker is the one asking the ethics board to take up the issue again. The Alabama Ethics Commission deadlocked on the matter this month. The ethics panel listed the opinion on today’s agenda. However, a lawyer representing Beeker says the panel may reconsider.

There will be no public vote on an Alabama lottery. APR’s Pat Duggins reports time is also running out for lawmakers to make up for a miscarriage of justice when they resume a special session next week.

State Senator Paul Bussman submitted a bill on the case of Anthony Ray Hinton. He spent thirty years in prison after being falsely convicted in a double murder in 1985.

Bussman wants to compensate Hinton through Alabama’s Wrongful Incarceration Act. The measure states that prison exonerees can get fifty thousand dollars for each year of wrongful imprisonment.

Alabama voters won’t be casting ballots on a state lottery this November. But, there will be a proposed constitutional amendment to keep an estimated six hundred local laws from being declared null and void. A lawsuit is challenging House procedures which could make lawmakers' “yes” votes to allow voters to decide on a list of local ballot measures unconstitutional. If the legal challenge is successful, these local laws might be ruled invalid even if voters approved them. Senator Cam Ward says the measures possibly at risk include one in Florence allowing Sunday alcohol sales.

APR airs the first part of our ongoing series on prison and justice reform tomorrow. I'll report on how Alabama is the only U.S. state that allows judges to overrule a jury's recommendation of life in prison, and go for the death penalty. Click here for Birmingham attorney Richard Jaffe. He represented Randall Padgett, whose judge overrode the jury. Padgett was later exonerated. Pat D.

We’re looking back on the tornadoes that hit the state five years ago on April 27, 2011. Twelve percent of Tuscaloosa was destroyed, over fifty people were killed, and countless lives were changed forever. The very first victim of the tornado APR met face to face was Steve Miller. Now, five years later, I checked in to see how Miller is doing…

“For me, it was just a day of resolve and resolution, and I said ‘sign me up,” says James Stewart “Well, the first thing I tell them is that I went to jail, and they go ‘Oooh, Grandmama,” and I say well, let me explain…” recalled Eloise Gaffney. “It was just…you knew God was on your side,” says Washington Booker. “And we knew that it didn’t matter what we were facing. You knew if God was on your side, you’d overcome it.” Stewart, Gaffney, and Booker are all in their early sixties. They’re all from Birmingham. They’re all African American. And fifty years ago, they made national news.

“Let me know at the start of this conversation that I have never been a civil rights activist of any kind,” says former Birmingham radio disc jockey Shelley Stewart. “I want to make that perfectly clear.” The teenagers who took part in the 1963 children’s march see it differently They say they relied on signals and code words from Stewart’s radio show to know when the protest would begin. And even Shelley admits he knew firsthand what school kids, both black and white, could do in the race of racism. When he wasn’t on the air, Shelley the playboy played records at dance parties.

Birmingham area disc jockey Shelley the Playboy may have signaled the start of the children’s march in 1963, but he didn’t organize it. The credit goes to a lieutenant of Dr. Martin Luther King, the reverend James Bevel. One of the teenagers he inspired was James Stewart… “He wore one of the blue jeans suits, and had badges from everybody, and pins all over, and he was baldheaded and wore this skull cap,” Stewart remembered, “And he’s the one who was the kids’ ‘pied piper,’ he talked to us about getting involved.

What did you do during your last trip to summer camp? Maybe a little canoeing or making s’mores around the campfire? Some youngsters visiting Montgomery have something else in mind. They’re trading arts and crafts for performing classic characters like Lady MacBeth and Hamlet. Meet Camp Shakespeare Extreme.

All this week on Alabama Public Radio, we’re looking back on the tornadoes that hit Alabama on April 27, 2011. In Tuscaloosa, twelve percent of the city was destroyed and fifty four people were killed. The home of the University of Alabama wasn’t the only community hit with a life altering storm that year. And, how Tuscaloosa went about the process of rebuilding was considered controversial. Five years later, here's a report card in this "tale of two cities…"

“At that point, we understood this was going to be something like we’ve never seen in the history of our city.”

Thousands of people crowded the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma yesterday to remember what became known as “bloody Sunday.” Voting marchers in 1965 were attacked by State Troopers and a Sheriff’s posse armed with clubs and tear gas. The weekend observance was attended by President Obama and the children of Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior. APR news director Pat Duggins and reporter Stan Ingold teamed up to bring us this audio postcard…

This weekend, the city of Selma will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the civil rights event known as “bloody Sunday.” In 1965, sheriff deputies and state troopers attacked African American protesters during a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery. The violence is etched into world history, but it’s not the first time this city has seen bloodshed nor was 1965 the city's first "march to freedom."

Alabama doctors will be paid less for handling certain cases for the state’s Medicaid agency. As of August 1st, Alabama will no longer compensate doctors for what are known as “enhanced payments” for specific primary care visits and services. The higher than usual fees were paid for by the Federal Affordable Care Act in 2013 and 2014. Alabama chose to continue the higher payments in 2015, but elected to cancel them. The state’s Medicaid Agency is in the midst of what Governor Robert Bentley is calling a budget crisis.

TVA is closing and capping 10 coal ash ponds at power plants in Tennessee and Alabama, against the urging of environmentalists who want the ash dug up and removed. TVA issued its decision on Friday, affirming plans to keep the coal ash at six fossil plants where the ash was dumped over the past half century. TVA says the best, fastest and cheapest method of cleaning up the ponds is to close them and put a cap on the wastes to prevent leakage.

A judge dismissed Alabama's lawsuit against the federal government over refugee placement. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Ott rejected Alabama's claim that federal officials are not consulting with states on refugee placement. The dismissal comes a month after a judge threw out a similar Texas lawsuit, ruling that states had no authority over resettlements that are handled by the federal government. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley filed the lawsuit in January. The state asked the judge to block any refugee settlement unless the state was given security and medical information on each refugee.

A suspect in the killing of three Baton Rouge police officers was reportedly a student at the University of Alabama. Lawmen shot Gavin Long to death following an ambush. Multiple news reports are quoting the University of Alabama’s website that Long was on the Dean’s list at the Tuscaloosa campus. The suspect was reportedly enrolled at the Tuscaloosa campus for one semester in 2012. Three others police officers were wounded in the attack, one critically. The Associated Press reports two other "persons of interest" are being questioned.

Tuscaloosa WBC Boxing Champion Deontay Wilder retained his title with a technical knockout in the eighth round against Chris Arreola. The hometown boxer fought at least half of last night's bout with a broken right hand and a torn right bicep, and still won the match by TKO . Arreloa's corner stopped the fight after the challenger's left eye appeared swollen shut, and he had been knocked down in the fourth round. Wilder visibly winced in pain as trainer Jay Deas removed his right glove during a post-fight interview and applied an ice bag to the boxer's right bicep.

A judicial ethics panel wants Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore swiftly removed from office for urging the state's probate judges to defy the federal courts on gay marriage. The Judicial Inquiry Commission says that Moore's actions merit the highest possible sanction against a sitting judge, which is immediate removal from office. Moore told state probate judges in January that a state injunction against gay marriage was in "full force and effect" despite higher court rulings.

The Alabama Public Radio news team spotlighted the diversity of its statewide audience in 2015 with on-going coverage of issues, including the same sex marriage debate in Alabama, the 50th anniversary of the "bloody Sunday" attack on voting rights marchers in Selma, as well as Tuscaloosa's welcome home parade for WBC World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Deontay Wilder. Our entry for the RTDNA National Kaleidoscope Award also includes a feature on the "Bal Masque," a Mardi Gras celebration where Tuscaloosa's gay community interacts with its conservative Christian neighbors in Alabama.

The Radio-Television Digital News Association today named Alabama Public Radio the winner of its national “Kaleidoscope Award” for diversity coverage. APR news spotlighted the diversity of its statewide audience in 2015 with on-going coverage of issues including, the same sex marriage debate in Alabama, the 50th anniversary of the "bloody Sunday" attack on voting rights marchers in Selma, as well as Tuscaloosa's welcome home parade for WBC World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Deontay Wilder.

LBGT groups in Alabama are holding vigils to remember the victims of the Orlando Nightclub shooting. The University of Alabama group called Spectrum will gather at Gorgas Library on the Tuscaloosa campus tonight at 7:30 p.m. for a candlelight remembrance. The group Druid City Pride is planning a similar event at city hall. There will also be a vigil at 6:30 at the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery. A lone gunman killed at least fifty people during the early Sunday morning rampage at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando…

Alabama Public Radio is airing NPR's rolling coverage following this morning's shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. This programming will continue through All Things Considered, and then the news team will break in as needed. Be sure to tune in for the latest during ATC and tomorrow on Morning Edition on APR.

Alabama Republican Mike Hubbard was once a man who moved political mountains. He’s credited with helping to stage the 2010 GOP takeover of the state legislature which gave the Republicans a supermajority. It also gave Hubbard the gavel as House Speaker. Now, his political career is in tatters as he faces up to 240 years in prison after being convicted of 12 felony ethics charges.

A business in Alabama is helping NASA move forward with its Orion deep space exploration project. Space Science Services is currently working on NASA projects including modification of the structure complex for the mobile launch platform for the Orion Project. That's the new space capsule designed to carry astronauts out of Earth orbit for the first time since 1972. The company is also testing on the vertical assembly building platform for that project. The company has been in business since 1961 and has had a site in Dothan for about 25 years.

A new Louisiana State University policy could keep the University of Alabama's "million dollar band" from taking the field during November's football game between the Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers. The new policy will bar opponents' marching bands from performing at halftime of football games at Tiger Stadium during the upcoming season. LSU team spokesman Michael Bonnette tells The Advocate newspaper it's a "safety issue." LSU says the field's sidelines aren't large enough to accommodate bands from both schools as the first half of a game is about to end.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard's conviction on ethics charges automatically removes him from office and could mean years in prison for the powerful Republican. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each count, or 240 years total. Sentencing is set for July 8. Jurors on Friday found the one-time GOP star guilty of 12 counts of public corruption for using the influence of his political office to benefit his companies and clients. He was acquitted of 11 other counts.

Alabama Public Radio staffers, including news director Pat Duggins, assistant news director Stan Ingold, Morning Edition host Alex AuBuchon, Digital Media Center Director Elizabeth Brock, Classical Music director David Duff, and Development director Jeff Deneen met with Gulf coast listeners over the weekend. APR held a "donor dinner" for major contributors and underwriters at Mobile's Carnival Museum. That event was followed by the 2nd "Putting The Pub in Public Radio" at Fairhope Brewing Company. Many thanks to all who came out! Click on the "Youtube" link at the bottom to see the video...

Things got testy when former Alabama Governor Bob Riley took the witness stand again in Speaker Mike Hubbard’s ethics trial. The prosecutors tried to keep Riley from going on too long with his answers. The former governor accused Matt Hart from asking questions out of context. The prosecutions wants Riley to help them build the case that Hubbard illegally used his position as Alabama House Speaker to help himself and his businesses. There are twenty three felony counts against him. Hubbard says he did nothing wrong.

The trial of Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard is entering its third week. Former Governor Bob Riley is expected to return to the witness stand. Last Friday, he told jurors how Hubbard emailed him several times asking for a job. Riley says other conversation were just banter. Prosecutors called Riley to testify as they seek to prove Hubbard improperly asked lobbyists for work, investments and financial favors. The speaker is facing twenty three ethics charges. Conviction of any one of them could mean his ouster from his post in the state house.